VERMILION -- An 11-year-old boy at Vermilion's Sailorway Middle School was taken into custody for menacing after he "made threats about shooting everyone in the school," according to a Vermilion police report. Meanwhile, rumors of threats to students at Clearview and Firelands schools proved to be false, according to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office.

Lawmen and school officials this week have dealt with public confusion as rumors spread about students possibly bringing guns to school.

Students, parents, teachers and administrators are more sensitive about possible violence in light of last week's fatal shooting of 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said Robert Hill, Firelands school superintendent.

In Vermilion yesterday, the boy became upset after his teacher asked him to double-check his test. He told the teacher, "I'm going to shoot everyone in this school."

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He was escorted to the office and later taken to the detention home.

Vermilion officers did not believe the boy had intentions of carrying out the threat, said police Chief Chris Hartung. However, the officers consulted with the Erie County Juvenile Court, where a magistrate authorized the menacing citation and taking the boy into custody, he said.

Lorain County Sheriff's deputies yesterday began investigating a rumor of a student possibly bringing a gun to Clearview's Durling Middle School, said Capt. Jim Drozdowski. The rumor was unfounded and deputies reported no immediate threat at the school, he said.

Deputies found the rumor was about "180 degrees apart" from what actually happened, Drozdowski said.

A Clearview student saw information about threats to schools posted on the social networking site Facebook, Drozdowski said. She remarked that the threats were crazy and should not be happening, but that morphed into a rumor of a threat at Clearview, he said.

The rumor frightened some parents, but there was no threat, Drozdowski said.

"She didn't bring a gun to school; there was never any gun at school," Drozdowski said. "It was all erroneous information."

Deputies on Monday afternoon also investigated the rumor of a student making a threat against Firelands High School, said Drozdowski and Hill.

However, there was no weapon at the school and no students were hurt, Hill said. A number of students did not report for class at the high school Tuesday morning, he said, but an exact number of absentees was not available.

"The Lorain County Sheriff's Office in their investigation found nothing credible to this threat," Hill said. "Nothing transpired, there was no credible threat, there was no weapon."

It appeared the Firelands students also perpetuated the rumor in hopes of staying home from classes, Hill said. Even so, Firelands school officials will investigate the rumors, he said.

"We take all threats seriously," Hill said. "That's why the sheriff's office was contacted; that's why we utilized their resources to determine if there was anything."

On Monday Sheriff Phil Stammitti also ordered his shift commanders to patrol to increase visibility around the schools, Drozdowski said. Deputies usually patrol around schools anyway, but the sheriff wanted a heightened presence after the events last week, Drozdowski said.